Foray into Crock-Pot kingdom with a Mediterranean stew

Chunky stew.

You obviously don’t have to scroll down to the author tag at the end of this post to realize Amber is writing this. Hi! Ashley’s got me beat on being a super-user of her Crock-Pot (that looks odd written properly), but I am coming up the rear! OK, not really. I’ve only otherwise used a slow cooker once to make meatballs, as a vegetarian, while Ashley’s probably making hot soap and butters by now.

I can’t help being awkward when talking about this Slow Cooker Mediterranean Stew recipe from Allrecipes.com because I’m tired yet can’t sleep and Arrested Development season four comes out in two weeks. Maybe that’s why I’m still awake.

Check it here, and baby — you will have a stew goin’.

Stats?

The original recipe is written in kcals, and I couldn’t figure them out, but I’m going to just pretend it’s American. It’s all vegetables, so, I think we’re safe here: 122 “k” calories, 0.5 g fat, 30.6 g carbs, 7.8 g fiber and 3.4 g protein per serving.

Appearance?

It’s difficult to get a picture of something in a slow cooker and make it not look like last night’s regurgitated meal plus cocktails, but, anything that has at least three colors of veggies is always going to look pretty in real life. Unless it’s put in a food processor.

Taste?

This stew was hearty, but perhaps a little too watery. I like my soups and stews light on the broth, heavy on the substance, but I could have also had too much water in there to begin with. I didn’t use the okra the recipe called for, and instead of tomato sauce and the ripe tomato, I used an extra big can of diced tomatoes in water, drained. Otherwise, I love that this recipe calls for turmeric, because I bought some over a year ago and this is the first time I’ve used it. The raisins added a slight sweetness, but kind of had that reverse effect of when people take a bath and turn all raisiny — raisins soaking in a hot stew for eight hours just get weird and bloated. (Sorry, raisins. You tasted fine?)

Verdict?

I would make this again, and probably keep to the same alterations on the recipe. I’m bad with measuring cups of vegetables — I just cut what I have available and try to use it all. So I did end up with a bit of leftover eggplant and zucchini after stuffing the pot with squash first, but I just used those extra veggies in a side dish I whipped up later in the week. Plenty of leftovers for a healthy lunch fuel.